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We see that people desire a lot of things in the world, and what they desire, they seek. But let people desire and seek what they want. Christian! You desire and seek your own, that is, what is proper and necessary for you. People wish to have happiness and prosperity in this world. You wish and try to have true piety in your heart... People want to get rid of work and be free. You want to be freed from sinful work and to be free from sins. This is a Christian desire! This is true freedom! Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin... If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free (John 8:34,36). People want to defeat people. You want to defeat yourself... People want to be masters and to command others. You desire and try to dominate and command your flesh. This is a Christian desire! This is true domination! People want to reign over people. You wish and try to reign over your passions and lusts. This is a Christian desire! The true king is the one who controls himself and his passions. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). They are gentlemen, rulers and kings!.. People want to take revenge on their enemies and ward off offense with insult. You, Christian, wish and try to yield to your enemies and reward their offense with good deeds. This is a Christian desire! This is the vengeance of true Christians! If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink: for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:20–21). People want to have a healthy body. You wish and try for your soul to be healed and healthy... People want to talk and talk to people. You wish and try to be silent more than to speak - so that you will avoid sin... People want to speak beautifully and smoothly. You want to live beautifully and Christianly... People want to receive from people. You, Christian, desire and try to give to people, remembering the word of the Lord Jesus, for He Himself says: it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). People want to live in a beautiful and rich house. You desire and try to live in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, and to be a holy fellow citizen and one of your own with God (1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19)... People want to walk around in beautiful and rich attire. Desire and try to clothe yourself with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, etc. (Col. 3:12). This is a Christian desire! Here is a wonderful Christian robe! With this utensil the Christian soul, like a royal daughter, is adorned. People want to satisfy their belly. Desire and try to saturate your soul with the Word of God and good and holy thoughts. This is a Christian desire! Here is the sweet food of the Christian soul! People want sweet and expensive wine. Desire tears and spiritual weeping - may your heart rejoice in God, your Savior. This is a Christian desire! Behold the sweet wine of the saints! Anyone who wants to have true joy must first cry quite a lot. People wish to have friendship with the noble and glorious of this world. Desire and try to have friendship with Christ and His saints... People want to receive a king in their house. You wish and try to receive the Heavenly King - Jesus Christ - in the house of your heart. He who loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23)… People wish to have strong people as protectors and helpers. You wish and try to have God as your helper and protector... People want to have wealth in this world. You wish and try to become rich in good deeds... People want to have fame and praise in this world. Desire and try to avoid this and you will have true glory. This is a Christian desire! This is true glory and praise - to despise the glory and praise of the world! People want to know a lot and seem wise. You desire and try to know yourself most of all. This is Christian wisdom! People want to know what is going on there and there. Do you wish and try to consider what is happening in your soul, what state it is in, what thoughts, desires and undertakings it produces, what does it strive for - eternity or time? Where does she collect her treasure - in heaven or on earth? What does it join to – God or the world? This is necessary and necessary knowledge! Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp for the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness (Matthew 6:21-23)? People want to please others. You wish and try to please God, your Lord. If I still pleased people, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10). But even this is written: each of us must please our neighbor for good and for edification (Rom. 15:2). And when we please people in this way, we please God, since God commanded us to please people. People want to calm the body. You wish and try to calm and pacify your conscience and your mind from evil and vain thoughts... People desire strength and bodily strength. You wish for strength and spiritual strength... People want to live long. You, Christian, wish to die blissfully... People want to be in favor with kings, princes and nobles. You, Christian, wish and try to be in the mercy of God, the Almighty, the Heavenly King. Do not trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation (Ps. 145:3)... People want to see the king or a high-ranking official. You, Christian, desire and try most of all to see God... Behold, beloved Christian, the desires of the Christian soul! These are the sighs and inner movements of a Christian who cares about his salvation! He who diligently desires something diligently seeks and obtains it. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). Christ says: it was said to the ancients: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” But I say that anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28). From this we conclude that he too is an adulterer who wants to commit adultery and harbors unclean thoughts in his heart, although he does not have sexual intercourse with a woman; and the murderer who hates his brother (1 John 3:15) is angry with his neighbor and wants to harm him or kill him, although he does not actually kill him; and he is a thief and a predator who wants to steal someone else’s thing, although he does not actually steal it; and that drunkard who wants to get drunk, although he does not get drunk; and that flatterer and deceiver who wants to seduce and deceive, although he does not do so in deed. The same should be understood about other evil thoughts. This sin is committed against the tenth commandment: you shall not covet (Ex. 20:17). And although such a person does not do evil to his neighbor, he wants to do it, and thus sins against God’s command. For God, as He speaks to our soul and heart, also looks at the heart and will of the soul, what kind of heart and will someone has and what a person’s will and heart is inclined towards, and judges him by that. A Christian should not only not do, but also think and want evil, when he does not want to sin against the Word of God and his conscience and thus hurt it and fall under God’s judgment. What kind of labors and deeds do sinners perform when the king promises them rank and honor, or some other temporary reward. Not only do they serve him within the fatherland with all the will and zeal, do their work with all zeal and diligence, but also outside the fatherland they go to war and expose themselves to mortal danger. They do all this in order to receive the promised honor from the king and temporary glory from the people. This hope encourages and motivates them to do so. But the same zealous servants for the sake of God, Who promises His servants not a temporary, but an eternal crown, not temporary honor and glory, but eternal, do not want to raise such a service that they raise for the sake of man and temporary self-interest. What is it, Christian, that they believe in the king of the earth, who promises rank and honor, and strive for him; but they do not believe the Heavenly King, who promises eternal honor and glory, and therefore do not want to serve Him and stand in the feat of Christian piety? Who would not want to have friendship with the king of the earth, to go to his meal and have fun with him? Who doesn’t want to be the son of a king and have the inheritance of an earthly kingdom? Almost everyone who is called by the name of Christ will not renounce this. But look and note whether the unfaithful and true God desires and seeks. God promises to have friendship with us: whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him (John 14:21). To love God and to be loved by God - what is this if not friendship? Friendship is mutual love. God promises us to be our God and Father and to have us as His sons. And I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:18). God calls us to the great supper in the Kingdom of Heaven and promises us the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. But who heeds this great and heavenly call? Who seeks what the unfaithful God promises in His mercy? All damned sinners are denied. They loved the honor, glory, wealth and sweetness of this world more than the honor, glory, wealth and heavenly and eternal consolation (see: John 12:43). They seek friendship with the king of the earth, but they do not seek friendship with the immortal God and the King of Heaven; they rush with zeal to the table of the earthly king, but do not want to go to the table of the Heavenly King; They want to reign temporarily on earth, but they do not want to reign in heaven forever. Oh, the deception of the human mind and heart!.. Everyone began to apologize (Luke 14:18). Everyone started to give up - what? - go to the prepared heavenly supper and obey the call of God. Why? Because they preferred to console themselves with temporary and earthly pleasures rather than heavenly and eternal ones. And so the invitation of God, with which He calls them through His servants, and God Himself who calls is despised. They will say: “Who refuses and does not want to receive the promised eternal benefits? Doesn’t everyone want them?” Truly there are few who truly desire with their hearts! He who sincerely desires something, having abandoned everything else, seeks that one thing with all diligence and diligence. What labors does not the lover of wealth undertake for the sake of wealth, the lover of fame and ambition for the sake of glory and honor, the sensualist for the sake of his desired pleasure! How much a farmer works and sweats for the sake of the fruit, a student for the sake of reason and external wisdom! Who does not see what is always before our eyes? Think the same way about the benefits promised by God. How great are those indescribable benefits, so much great work and deeds are required from us to receive them. Read the Holy Gospel and you will know this truth. You must renounce not only worldly lusts, but also yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ (see: Matt. 16:24), follow Him not with your feet, but with your heart, faith, love, patience, meekness, humility, and suffering. And so, where He is now Himself, there He will also lead His follower, according to a false promise: whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant also be (John 12:26). The greater the good, the more work is required to obtain it. And since there is no greater good than eternal good, and it alone is true good, then great work and deeds are required from us in order to comprehend it. So run to receive this eternal good (1 Cor. 9:24), says St. Paul. Who will get it? Not the one who lies, but the one who runs. Who's running? The one who, leaving everything else behind, strives, hurries and struggles towards him alone, as his center. And whoever does not have labor and achievement does not have a true desire. True desire motivates the person who wants to work and teaches a way to search in order to get what he wants. Whoever wants to come to Moscow, or to St. Petersburg, or to Kyiv, goes the road that leads to those cities, and not another. So, whoever wants to come to God and His eternal kingdom must go through the narrow gates and the narrow path, and not through the wide gates and the long path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). And the Lord says: through your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19). And one more thing: you will have tribulation in the world (John 16:33). Every evil and disaster awaits those who strive for God and His Kingdom. We must endure all this, and struggle against our enemies - the flesh, the world and the devil, so that through labor and struggle, with the help of God, we can obtain what we initially had and lost without labor. Anyone who wants to steal and appropriate someone else’s property, although in fact he does not steal it, is a thief, for a person sins by will or does not sin. And such a person who desires someone else’s good already steals by will, even if in fact he did not steal, for sin consists of the will and will of man. When a person wants to steal someone else’s property, he already steals it by his own will; if he wants to commit fornication, he is already committing fornication; wants to kill a person - he has already killed with his own will. And if there is no sin in the will, then in reality there is no sin. When a person's will is good, then the person is good, and when the will is evil, then the person is evil. According to his own will, everyone is either evil or good. So, a person who has an evil will is evil, even if he has not done external evil deeds. In the will and heart of man resides a murderer, a fornicator, a thief and other evil. And what is not in the heart is not really there. You need to correct your will and heart, and then you will be a good person.